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Opening puzzle…
Winter Peter Rose · Saturday, 20 December 2025 · Ahhhh!
December 2025
Saturday,
20 December 2025
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Across
1.
Pacific capital where they garland you at the airport before you have found your luggage (8)
7.
iOS without the i; what Windows and Android both are (2)
9.
New Year's ___; also the first person ever talked into a fruit (3)
10.
The period every uncle insists was better than yours (3)
11.
Reaction to onions, or to 22-Down in a semi-final (3)
12.
French 'the', as in ___ Monde or ___ Mans (2)
13.
What the Starks kept warning about; also when Test cricket comes home to India (6)
15.
Empire that built Machu Picchu without a single wheel (4)
17.
What 33-Across carries into every meeting, in bulk (3)
18.
US state shaped like a box that lost a corner (4)
21.
Mimic; also the mimicked one at the zoo (3)
23.
Parker who swings around New York, or the England that ironed India's office shirts (5)
25.
Give it a go, or score five in rugby (3)
26.
Box that said 'behno aur bhaiyo' every Wednesday, decades before podcasts (5)
28.
What 13-Across leaves on the windshield; also a poet who took the road less travelled (5)
31.
Idle talk; add an A and it is a Juhu Beach snack (4)
32.
Not high; also what a cow says (3)
33.
The person whose 'quick sync' is never quick (3)
34.
Homesick alien who phoned home before roaming charges (2)
35.
Capital where the Peace Prize is handed over and 28-Across is the default weather (4)
37.
Three letters you sign before they show you the demo (3)
39.
The only Test team that is not a country: Lara, Richards, and the fast men who made the whole world duck (10)
Down
1.
Gas that turns your voice into a cartoon and your balloon into a flight risk (6)
2.
The tandoor's cousin, the one with a door (4)
3.
Direction from Mumbai to Delhi, roughly; Nebraska on a jumper (2)
4.
The garland 1-Across hangs on you, no questions asked (3)
5.
Tiny pot England and Australia fight over; also the big pot the office coffee sits in (3)
6.
What 'reaching in five minutes' means in Bangalore traffic (4)
7.
The word that turns 'tea' into a decision: tea ___ coffee (2)
8.
Harbour city where the Ashes get personal every New Year (6)
11.
Country shaped like a croissant that gave the world the necktie and one World Cup final (7)
13.
Muddy ones sang the blues; troubled ones need a bridge (6)
14.
For example, in two Latin letters (2)
16.
The World one, the filter kaapi one, and the one you say 'my' before (3)
19.
Preposition hiding in every email address (2)
20.
Spike Jonze film where a lonely man falls for his 7-Across (3)
22.
South Africa's cricketers, named after a flower, famous for wilting in semi-finals (7)
24.
Sprint; also what every pulse does when the last over starts (4)
27.
Captain Cool, who finished it off in style with a helicopter (5)
28.
What the Cauvery does when Karnataka allows it; also a rapper's rhythm (4)
29.
Flower; also what the Sensex did; also Jack's date on the Titanic (4)
30.
Night-shift birds, and what Hogwarts uses instead of Gmail (4)
33.
Tin of beans, or what you say when you are able to (3)
36.
Overtime on a payslip; extra time on a scoreboard (2)
38.
French 'of', as in Tour ___ France (2)